Saturday Ashagre played his last baseball game of the season and Elsa played her first (and last). Elsa was invited to be an honorary member of the Tigers, as she had been to every practice - participating in quite a few toward the end. She was SO excited, especially because she got to wear a real Tigers uniform, and she did really well.
When our friends asked if Elsa and Ashagre might want to come down and check out a baseball practice only a month after arriving in America from Ethiopia we were skeptical that it was a good idea, but decided to give it a shot anyway. All the adoption literature we read prior to bringing the kids home suggested throwing the kids into a new challenge like this would be too much for them to handle. The whole thing was pretty overwhelming to Elsa, but Ashagre really seemed to have a good time so we decided to sign him up and suit him up for the next game. We always said that we would stop playing baseball if it became too much for him. It never did.
In fact, he has grown so much because of baseball. Through baseball he learned to be comfortable interacting with other adults other than Mommy and Daddy (thanks to the awesome and encouraging coaches, Greg, Ryan, and Mark). He learned how to watch his teammates, learn from them, and have fun with them. He learned how to be part of a team. Not to mention he learned how to hit the ball pretty well (you should have seen his last hit of the season), run faster, and throw even further and more accurately.
Baseball has been a huge confidence builder for both kids, and I am really glad that we took a chance and gave them the opportunity to play. Just look at Elsa's smile when she's up to bat - it says it all.
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| Warming up before the game. |
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Ashagre took the end of the bench away from all the others at the beginning
of the season too. At the end, he was right in the middle of his teammates. |
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| Waiting for her turn to bat. |
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| Fielding - like 5 and 6 year olds field. |
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| Pep talk from Coach Greg. |
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| Running the bases with some pointers from Coach Mark. |
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| As always, her smile had the entire bleacher section melting. |
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| Someone's pretty proud to be on base after a good hit. |
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Ashagre hit the ball and was off running so quickly I
hardly got him in the frame of the picture. |
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| Go Tigers! |
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| End of the season congratulations and praise from Coach Greg. |
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